Clergy

Clergy

Rabbi Etan TokayerRabbi

In 2008, Rabbi Tokayer was appointed the fourth Rabbi of Kingsway Jewish Center in the almost nine decades since its founding. A graduate of Yeshiva College, he holds a Master’s degree in Jewish History from YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School.
He is a musmakh of YU/RIETS, and he also received semicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg in Yerushalayim. From 2007 to 2014, Rabbi Tokayer also served as the Executive Vice President of Just One Life, an Israeli social service agency which helps expectant mothers in crisis. Previously, he was the Associate Rabbi of Congregation Ramath Orah in Manhattan and also devoted his time to Jewish Education, having taught at the YU High School for Boys (Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy) and at the Torah Academy of Bergen County in New Jersey.
Rabbi Tokayer is a member of the RCA, the nation’s largest most respected Orthodox rabbinic organization and sits on its Executive Committee.

Rabbi Dr. Mordechai SchiffmanAssistant Rabbi

Rabbi Schiffman became the Rabbinic Intern at Kingsway in 2010, and has been the Assistant Rabbi since 2012. After graduating from Yeshiva College, he completed his Semikha at RIETS, and a Master's in Jewish Education from Azrieli Graduate School. He was a teaching fellow in a number of schools including, Yeshivah of Flatbush, MTA, Yeshivat Noam, and Ramaz.

In addition to his role at Kingsway, Rabbi Schiffman completed his doctoral degree in Psychology and is currently beginning a post-doctoral position.

Rabbi Shlomo WolmanShamash

Rabbi Wolman studied in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchok Hutner, Rav Aharon Schecter and Rav Yonosson David. Before moving to Brooklyn, Rabbi Wolman worked as a Shochet and ran a butcher shop in Minneapolis. He was the community’s Baal Kriah and Baal Tefilah and gave classes in Adult Education. Upon his move back to New York Rabbi Wolman entered the Kashrus field and is currently the Mashgiach of Seasons Supermarket in Lawrence. He has been the Shamash in Kingsway for the past twenty years.

R. Milton H. PolinRabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Polin served the Kingsway community from 1974 to 1997. Upon retiring from Kingsway, he made aliyah with his wife, Shainee. In 1997, then Congressman, Charles Schumer, honored Rabbi Polin by saying the following about him in front of Congress:

Mr. Speaker, Rabbi Milton H. Polin, spiritual leader of
Brooklyn's prestigious Kingsway Jewish Center since 1974 and past
president of the Rabbinical Council of America is one of the foremost
rabbinic personalities in the United States.

At his ordination 43 years ago, his teachers characterized him as ``a
gifted young scholar who will inspire a profound reverence for Torah
Judaism.'' More recently he was paid tribute by the U.S. House of
Representatives for being ``a man highly esteemed and respected by
Jews and Christians whose lives have been touched by numerous good
works and kind deeds of this outstanding spiritual and civic leader.''

His rabbinic leadership has transformed his congregation into a
pulsating center of Torah learning and communal activity for hundreds
of young, highly educated, religiously observant families. He
personally teaches a variety of classes for men and women of all ages
and backgrounds at his synagogue. In addition, the Greater New York
UJA-Federation recently recognized his congregation's outstanding
outreach program for new American families and awarded it a significant
Continuity Commission grant...